The story of William Lane’s attempt to set up an Australian socialist utopia in the jungle of Paraguay in the 1890s is the stuff of grand opera. The doomed tale of a charismatic, even messianic leader drawing a band of ardent believers into the wilderness could have emerged from some long-lost archive of Verdi and Boito.

The surprising thing is that this story has largely by-passed our composers (with one or two exceptions, including George Dreyfus and the present writer). It is largely forgotten in our historical memory, resurfacing from time to time as yet another attempt to create a fair and more equitable society. (The parallels between Lane and another failed prophet, one E.G. Whitlam, suggest consideration.)

Creating an opera on such a grand scale would be a daunting, perhaps overwhelming prospect, pointless in an age of pared-back astringency. There is another way to tackle the idea.

Composer Andrew Byrne was born in Melbourne and educated at La Trobe University in the experimental heyday of Keith Humble and his Californian clan. A Fulbright grant took him to study at Columbia University and he has remained in New York these past 20 or so years, rising through the ranks to become Artistic...